Well, at least when it comes to becoming successful at gaming. That’s what some researchers are saying now; so if, for example, you find yourself struggling with certain kinds of video games, it may be your brain size that is to blame.

According to the findings published in the journal Cerebral Cortex, certain parts of the brain may be larger than the others; so much so that the proportions are totally out of whack. This disproportion may explain why some individuals are better at certain tasks than others.

More on the research and the findings from BBC:

MRI scans showed participants with a larger nucleus accumbens, which is part of the brain’s reward centre, outperformed others in the first few hours, perhaps due to the “sense of achievement and the emotional reward” accompanying achievement in the earliest stages of learning, the team speculated.

But those players who ultimately performed best on the game in which priorities changed had larger sections deep in the centre of the brain, known as the caudate and putamen.

So it’s not just gaming overall that is affected. It is also the kind of task that you have to achieve throughout the game!

If you’re tempted to be fatalistic and give up on gaming, don’t be. The researchers say that the brain is “fairly plastic,” meaning that it can be trained to change and perform much better. More so, they say that at the end of the day, it is what you do with your brain that counts. Yep, brain size is a factor but it is something that can always be overcome!

Tags: brain, research, science

Sunny day, chasing the clouds away…

I am pretty sure that those of you who are around 30 years old remember those lines very well. Go back to your childhood and I am sure that you will remember days of sitting in front of the TV set, watching Big Bird, Cookie Monster, and all the other awesome characters on Sesame Street. If there is one thing that I am sure of, it is that Sesame Street and the people behind it know a lot about children and know what is good for them.

Thus, when I read about Sesame Workshop’s latest report, I was quite happy! The Joan Ganz Clooney Center recently published a report which discusses the positive effects of video games on children. I like how the report encourages everyone – from educators to parents – to look beyond the stereotype of video games and examine how they can actually be advantageous to the development of children.

Among some of these advantages are:

• Content (from rich vocabulary to science to history)
• Skills (from literacy to math to complex problem-solving)
• Creation of artifacts (from videos to software code)
• Systems thinking (how changing one element affects relationships as a whole)

Indeed, if you think about it, video games can be harnessed to make the learning experience an even better one. While the report does not make conclusive claims, the mere fact that a reliable entity has acknowledged video games as positive is enough to make my day!

My initial reaction to the slew of articles and reports on a recent study stating that about 10 percent of young American video gamers are addicted to video games: you think? Seriously, we know how attached children are these days on video games. We do not really need a study to tell us this!

Still, researchers somehow deemed it important to actually conduct a formal study on the subject. This is what they discovered:

• Spent 24 hours a week playing video games: about twice as much time as non-pathological gamers.
• Were more likely to have video game systems in their bedrooms.
• Were more likely to report having problems paying attention at school.
• Were more likely to have received a diagnosis of Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).
• Received poorer school grades.
• Had poorer health.
• Were more likely to say they felt “addicted” to their habit.
• Stole to support their habit.

How exactly did they conduct the study?

Using clinical-style criteria similar to that for measuring gambling behaviour, a new study confirmed what many parents already believe, that not only is it possible for children to become “addicted” to video games but nearly 10 per cent of American youngsters actually are.

The study was the work of Iowa State University’s Assistant Professor of Psychology, Dr Douglas Gentile, and was published online on 13 April in the journal Psychological Science.

I’d say that we already knew this. The more important question is how we can address the issue. What do you think?

Whoever thought that video games would reach the heights that they have reached today? Long gone are the days when video games were merely for kids who wanted to entertain themselves. We all know this – with the Wii, PlayStation3, and the Xbox360, more and more people are discovering the world of video games. Here is another reason to value video games, though. Elderly drivers are learning to stimulate their minds and reflexes using video games. ABC News has this story:

Kramer and his wife, Donna, agreed to take part in an experiment: playing a computer game. The software, made by Posit Science, is called an “exercise for the brain.”

“At first I thought, ‘ha-ha, just another game. But it became challenging to where you wanted to do it,” Donna Kramer said.

Allstate Insurance is now offering the game as a free trial to 100,000 Pennsylvania customers whose accident rates will be compared with a group of drivers not playing the games to see if it helps their reflexes and peripheral vision.

“There are a group of people, [ages] 50 to 75, that could benefit from some brain exercise, improve their driving skills, improve their attention, improve their visual skills,” said John Kane, regional distribution leader at Allstate Insurance Co.

There are no results as of yet but the researchers are quite excited about the potential of this study. I am far from elderly but I am also excited about the whole study! How about you?

Kids from today’s generation may be left a bit confused as to who that person in the title is. I am sure that those who were teenagers – or maybe even in their tweens – way back in the 90s would recognize this name, though. Noel Gallagher is the other half of the famous (and infamous in many ways as well) Gallagher brothers, who fronted the British band Oasis. Ring a bell now?

I will not argue with anyone who says that Oasis is one of the best bands of all time. Yes, I love many of their songs. That is not to say that they are experts in psychology and social behavior, is it? Apparently Noel Gallagher thinks he is. BBC reports:

Noel Gallagher has waded into the debate over youth knife crime while picking up a prize at the Silver Clef music awards in London.

The Oasis guitarist said it was a “pity scumbags are taking over our streets”, and claimed video games were partly to blame for violence.

He said: “In my day, status was trying to be somebody, do you know what I mean, not trying to kill somebody?”

The star said knife crime was a problem across the UK, not just in London.

And how do you explain the connection between video games and the knife crimes in the UK today, Mr. Gallagher? Come on now, I am sure you have more concrete reasoning than that, don’t you?

Oh well, I guess some people would point at the easiest thing they can lay their eyes on.

Aha! Now wouldn’t kids love to read that headline! I know that we have heard about the benefits that video games can bring to our kids but of course, many parents and even educators have had their own share of doubts. This is even truer when it comes to video games that have, let us say, controversial content. But let’s not focus solely on the controversial. That does not always result in productive discussion.

Anyhow, a group of researchers from the University of Central Florida conducted a study on educational video games and their effects, specifically, on the math scores of the subjects. Take note that the video games used in the study are labeled educational.

So what did they find out? Students who played the game (DimensionM – pity I have not even heard of this game) over a period of 18 weeks showed considerable improvement in their math scores as compared to those students who did not play the game. The report from the Orlando Business Journal notes:

The results support previous studies which have found that interactive games are more effective on cognitive gains than traditional classroom instruction alone, says Ntiedo Etuk, CEO and co-founder of Tabula Digita, an educational video game company whose DimensionM game series was used in the study.

Again, I think it does not take a rocket scientist to figure this out BUT having solid scientific proof is always a good thing, isn’t it?

Photo courtesy of Kimblahg

I thought I’ve heard every possible use there is for video games – until I read about Former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor’s recent speech. Based on what I have read online, the former Supreme Court Justice thinks that video games can get the youth interested in politics – with the ultimate aim of initiating change.

MTV’s Multiplayer blog says:

While O’Connor will probably never play “Halo,” she explained that she came into the digital world after noticing how increasingly difficult it is to receive impartial judgments from serving judges who face mounting political pressure and partisan attacks. She feels that the only way to combat this is with video games about civics education. Yes, that’s right: video games.

O’Connor is spearheading a joint venture with Georgetown Law School and Arizona State University called “Our Courts,” an online civics education project aimed at 7th, 8th and 9th grade students. The free website will allow young people to step into the shoes of a judge, legislator or executive and debate and analyze governmental problems and issues.

The “Our Courts” website is up now, but O’Connor said she hopes that by September it will have the curriculum for classroom use. Gee’s interactive contributions are slated for September 2009.

What can I say? This sounds like a good thing. What do you think? Is this indeed a good move or is it another gimmick that does not really mean anything?

We had two boys aged 7 and 12 – I never knew how creative you had to be in order to keep little boys occupied for 2 days! Anyway, it was kind of a good thing that we have several toys – gaming consoles and computers, that is – that the boys loved.

There were moments of uncertainty for me, however. I had not finished GTA IV then (yes, I have finished it now – I finished it yesterday, to be exact!) and really wanted to play. I tried to avoid it but just couldn’t. So it was not really surprising that after watching me play for a while, the boys were clamoring to be able to play.

GTA IV for kids? I don’t think so! It is not only about the violence and sexually explicit content, really. Following the dialogue and completing the missions are quite complicated activities in themselves. But I gave in – ok, boys, each of you can play for 30 minutes and then go back to the GameBoy or the PC.

Boy, did they have fun! At first they had difficulty controlling the cars. After a while, they were able to do a decent job out of it. Of course, they didn’t really follow the storyline. All they wanted to do was to drive around, get nice cars, and shoot people.

So should kids play GTA? I think that it’s not all that bad. You just have to explain to them the difference between reality and the game. And I really didn’t even have to explain that much – they themselves stated the difference. The only thing I am slightly worried about is that they might become desensitized to violence.